


a failure of happenstance

by kwritten



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 09:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6188833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwritten/pseuds/kwritten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for the prompt: "in my universe we hate each other, but in yours we were married au"</p>
            </blockquote>





	a failure of happenstance

Turns out, you can get tired of anybody. Even your soulmate. 

Imagine that. 

 

“Is this what irony is? Or is it something else?”

Her mother doesn’t know. And neither does she. 

This time, she leaves because… leaving is what _he_ is good at. And she’s tired of being second-best. 

“If I could change my face and fly you to the stars, would you love me again, the way you used to?”

She says no. Pats his cheek. 

She lied. And doesn’t really feel all that bad about it. Because the point isn’t all that he _can’t_ do in this world and in this fallible body, but all the things that she can’t do because he’s attached to her. 

 

They never said _be careful, there’s two of you now_ , but it’s something that lurks around all the same. 

Be careful, you might walk through a door and see your own face. 

They never said it, because it never seemed to matter. 

 

The _other_ Rose wears a pantsuit and has short brown hair. She likes her latte extra hot with hazelnut. She rarely looks up from her phone, which makes it unlikely that she’ll ever notice her shadowy look-a-like. And three times a week (on average) she picks a fight with the small bakery owner next door to her favorite coffee shop. 

The bakery is small, just specialty items, a few cupcakes, three kinds of bagels fresh in the morning first-come, first-serve. 

The shop owner is _also_ small. 

And under duress can curse like a sailor three times her size. 

Which seems to be mostly with the _other_ Rose is pitching a fit about… well, now: Rose isn’t exactly sure _what_ they fight about. 

But it’s really fucking hot when they do. 

 

She gets contacts and dyes her hair a bright red, then perms it into thick spirals that trail down her back, learns how to contour her face via YouTube videos so that she looks thinner, and applies a multitude of fake freckles over the bridge of her nose. She says her name is _Lily_ and the owner of the coffee shop doesn’t really care about her name clearly being fake – or the fact that she needs to be paid in cash – and like that she has a job. 

The first time _other_ Rose comes into the shop, which is about three hours after her first shift stars, she watches the faces of everyone around her, waiting for the jig to be up. 

There’s a little old lady that stares at her for a moment and then swears up and down that she’s the spitting image of Audrey Hepburn and then later tells a potted plant a long story about forgetting her glasses at home that morning. So there’s that. 

The first time the petite small bakery owner comes in for a cup of coffee and looks her straight in the eye, she just says, “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

 _Lily_ ’s fingers linger on the petite small bakery owner’s as she hands her a black coffee a few moments later, and it’s all exactly as she planned.

 

“Did you ever meet the _other_ me?”

They don’t talk about her old world very often, too absorbed in _this_ one and each other to care much about what happens elsewhere. 

“No,” Rose trails a hand down Clara’s naked smile with a feline grin slowly spreading across her face. 

Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t, she doesn’t much care. 

“I wonder what she’s like…” 

Rose kisses the question away and they move on to more relevant topics, like whether pants are absolutely necessary in order to order to make pancakes and if anyone’s fed the cat. 

 

_“I did **not** steal your purse, lady!”_

_“Then what’s that – right there in your hand?”_

_“ **My** purse!”_

_“Oh really???!”_

_“ GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!!!”_

_“This COW has my purse, just watch… wait what?”_

_“Is that man right there holding your purse up?”_

_“Um…”_

_“Great. Real fucking charming.”_

_“I’m sor--?”_

_“Don’t even bother. I’m late. And you are an ass.”_

_“Same to you, lady.”_

_“I hope you get kidney failure!”_

_“I hope you get hit by a bus.”_

_“Mum? Hello? You’ll never believe what just happened….”_


End file.
